


American Gods, Season 1, Episode 4, Git Gone

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: American Gods (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s01e04 Git Gone, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 01, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25466131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	American Gods, Season 1, Episode 4, Git Gone

Open to Laura working in an Egyptian-themed casino.

I don’t buy this for even a flimsy justification of Anubis later showing up for her. This is akin to saying: Well, you didn’t believe in any deities, but because you worked at place where logographic characters and Asian artwork were used as decoration here’s this Chinese god, you’ve somehow ended up in an afterlife described in Japanese mythology, etc.

She’s unhappy at being told a machine rather than her will now be used for shuffling.

At home, it’s shown she has a cat. During the course of her night, she kills a fly with Git Gone bug spray, and getting into a tub with lid, she sprays it inside with the lid closed before opening the lid to heavily breath in the fresh air.

Interestingly, during a number of scenes at the house, cartoons are playing on the TV.

Next, Shadow shows up at the casino, and immediately realising he’s trying to grift, she makes it clear why he shouldn’t.

Later, he approaches her in the parking lot at night, and men and boys should not do this sort of thing to women and girls. For many, it’s creepy and terrifying.

She makes it clear she isn’t interested, but when he tells her to take him home, she decides to do so. At her home, she eventually gets it across she wants rough sex, and he obliges.

The morning after, she’s silently like, ‘You’re still around?’

Yes, he is, and thus, the tragedy begins.

During their courtship, it’s revealed Laura is non-theistic, and Shadow’s own beliefs are left somewhat ambiguous. Her friends, married couple Audrey and Robbie, are shown interacting with both. Eventually, Laura and Shadow marry.

Into their married life, she decides she and him should rob the casino.

Cue her visiting him in jail after he was caught. She suggests turning herself in so that his sentence will be halved, and his response is no, absolutely not.

It’s worth noting Laura does have agency. She could go to the police, and he couldn’t do anything to stop her. However, choosing to let him convince her to let him take the fall, she promises she’ll wait for him.

Laura’s life after Shadow’s imprisonment is shown. It seems Shadow is constantly calling her, Audrey comes over with crafts to occupy her, Robbie is shown helping with maintenance around the house, and she visits Shadow.

Then, one night, she comes home to find her cat dead.

She calls Robbie over, and after the cat is buried, she rejects his offer of coming over to sleep on his Audrey’s couch (although, I’m surprised they don’t have a guestroom).

They end up kissing.

Next, crows are shown watching when Robbie comes over for some more sex on the pretext he’s helping her move furniture.

Later, she’s getting ready for Shadow’s surprise party, he calls, and they have the conversation they had in the pilot.

Afterwards, she and Robbie are going on their car trip. He wants things to continue, she insists it won’t, and then, she idiotically decides performing oral sex on person operating a motorised vehicle isn’t an extremely dangerous thing to do.

Other than this, I don’t buy Robbie talking about leaving Audrey and Laura leaving Shadow. Until this scene, there’s never been any indication he’s been in love her.

They crash, and there’s a cool shot of Laura looking down at their bodies from in the air.

Next, finding herself with Anubis, she refuses to let him weigh her heart.

Not appreciating her rudeness, he declares she’ll go into darkness. With clear hope, she asks if there will be peace, and he simply repeats there will be darkness before adding he won’t even remember her. Then, to his puzzlement, she suddenly disappears.

I don’t like this scene for several reasons.

Meanwhile, crawling out of her grave, Laura sees a golden glow in the distance, and she goes to discover Shadow being lynched. Saving him, she has one of her arms cut off in the process.

The next scene has blood-covered her carrying her arm as she walks down a luckily but likely unrealistically deserted street in the daylight.

She goes to her house, and a POV shot shows her seeing things in black-and-white. She takes a shower to get rid of all the blood. Packing a bag, she starts to leave only for the golden glow to alert her Shadow is coming.

She ends up hiding in the tub.

I wonder what would have happened if she revealed herself now or right after saving him from the lynching.

Her next decision is to break into the house of woman whose husband she helped cheat, although, in her slight defence, Audrey does have a ton of craft supplies that could be potentially helpful. Attempting to sew her arm back on, she’s experiencing stomach troubles when Audrey appears, and I can’t do justice to explaining how perfect Laura’s upbeat, easy greeting of, “Hey, Audrey!” is.

Emily Browning did amazing with it.

Audrey handles this much better than I would. During her screaming, she has the presence of mind to grab her phone as she retreats to the bathroom.

Breaking the doorknob off the locked door, Laura speaks in a calm tone. Ending up on the toilet, she expels embalming fluid, and Audrey gets down to a calmer level. They discuss Laura’s not-dead deadness and her affair with Robbie. When Audrey tells her about trying to seduce Shadow on Laura’s grave, Laura simply agrees, “Yeah, that does seem fair.”

Despite everything, Audrey ends up sewing Laura’s arm back on. Aw.

Keeping up with the delightful dark comedy, Laura brings up the fact she needs to borrow Audrey’s car.

During the car ride, Laura complains about her obituary. She also insists she loves Shadow, and Audrey ain’t buying it.

Another car crash almost happens due to Mr Ibis and a Doberman standing in the middle of the road. Luckily, Audrey stops in time.

Then, the Doberman turns into Anubis. “You, I remember.”

They take her to their funeral home, and this is a well-acted scene on everyone’s part.

Mr Ibis is gentlemanly carrying her arm for her, and he gives her some exposition on them and the funeral home.

When Anubis gestures for her to climb up on a gurney, she does. He non-verbally indicates she needs her shirt to be removed, and she raises her arm. Taking it off, he neatly folds it before putting it on something reminiscent of his scales. Then, he cradles her head as she lays down.

Throughout Anubis silently working on her body, Mr Ibis explains what’s being done and why. “We need to tend to your flesh as best we can, as it can’t tend to itself anymore.”

Anubis makes a pointed comment about her heavy heart, Laura is snarky back, and Mr Ibis nicely tells her, “Many is the man who would take any version of his lost love. Rather than leave his love lost, he will say thank you to whatever god has sent you back to him.”

Once Mr Ibis has gotten out-of-earshot, Anbuis is all, ‘I will let you go right now, but one day, I am so condemning you to eternal darkness.’

After all this, Laura somehow gets into Shadow’s hotel room. Putting up fly paper and changing into a dress, she waits on his bed.

The golden light appears, and Shadow opens the door. Smiling a bit, she greets, “Hi, puppy.”

Fin.


End file.
